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International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol.3, Issue.2, March-April. 2013 pp-793-797 ISSN: 2249-6645
Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Siddhartha University, India Professor, Department of Centre for Disaster Mitigation, Jain University, India
Abstract: The development of water mist fire suppression technology has made substantial progress over the last decade.
Water mist based techniques are becoming popular but the fire extinguishment products call for high initial investment. There exists a need to develop cost effective water mist generation techniques appropriate for fire suppression. A standard portable water-CO2 fire extinguisher nozzle is selected for study with an application density of 1.0 l/min/m2.A multi-jet nozzle with opposed jet configuration is developed to get improved spray characteristics. Droplet Sauter Mean Diameters (SMD) were empirically calculated using correlations available in the literature. The spray developed has resulted in droplets with SMD in the range of 0.3 0.4 mm as calculated from correlations and confirmed using experimental measurements.
Keywords: atomization, fire suppression, portable water extinguishers, spray nozzles, water spray I. Introduction
Water is the most cost effective reagent for fire extinguishment. Water in the form of jets/sprays is used for fire suppression. Water dispensation at an optimal rate is essential to improve effectiveness of utilization and also protect the fire affected regions from the ill effects of water inundation in the post fire scenario. Several studies exist in the literature aimed at improving the utilization efficiency of water during fire suppression [1, 5, 6]. Breaking up water jets into finer particles improves surface area available for heat absorption but smaller particle mass reduces penetration of water into fire. Mist based extinguishers are available in the market which claim lower water consumption but they are prohibitively expensive and therefore their availability for use is restricted. Even to this day, the flow rates employed in Class-A fire extinguishers available in the market utilize large application densities (>1 l/min/m2) to ensure effectiveness in extinguishment. Therefore, there exists a scope for improvement in water utilization effectiveness of fire extinguishers. Standard issue portable water CO2 fire extinguisher of 9 l volume is selected for the present study. Water jet nozzle is replaced with a multi-jet opposed configuration.
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International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol.3, Issue.2, March-April. 2013 pp-793-797 ISSN: 2249-6645
(2) Viriato Semibo, Pedro Andrade and Maria da Gra Ca Carvalho [9], have worked on numerical prediction of SMD for sprays. The paper has discussed several correlations used in atomizers. Correlation given in equation 3 is recommended for water sprays of the type used in the current work.
(3)
Fig. 2: Effect of pressure on mass flow rates 1.2. Effect of mass flow rate Fig 3 gives the comparison between the theoretical and experimental mass flow rates for the opposed jet configuration nozzle.
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International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol.3, Issue.2, March-April. 2013 pp-793-797 ISSN: 2249-6645
Fig 3: Effect of theoretical and experimental mass flow rate with pressure Fig 4 shows the schematic representation of the spray, in which the cone angle, jet break up length, throw of the spray and width of the spray is measured at 6 bar pressure from the opposed jet nozzle configuration.
Fig 4: Spray characterization 1.3. Sauter Mean Diameter Sauter mean diameter (SMD, d32 or D[3, 2]) is an average of particle size. It was originally developed by German scientist J. Sauter in the late 1920s. It is defined as the diameter of a sphere that has the same volume/surface area ratio as a particle of interest. The value of d32 using the correlation from the equation (2), at 6bar gauge pressure, was found to be,
d32 = 0.293mm The value of the SMD calculated using the correlation from the equation 93), at 6bar gauge pressure was found to be,
SMD = 0.317mm The result of the calculated SMD obtained from the equation (2) and equation (3) are almost similar.
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International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol.3, Issue.2, March-April. 2013 pp-793-797 ISSN: 2249-6645
Figure 5 shows effect of pressure on predicted SMD from two different correlations. The predicted values from both correlations quantitatively agree with each other. The rate of decrease of SMD is demonstrated to be large at pressures below 3 bar and beyond 3 bar; the decrease in SMD with increase in pressure is small.
V. Experimentation
The empty cylinder weight is noted before filling the water. The water is filled into the cylinder and closed tightly ensuring no leakage and weight of the cylinder is noted and tabulated. All the connections are made sequentially and ensure no leakage in any point. The compressor is connected to the air tank through the pressure gauge and pressure valve. The air tank is connected to the cylinder to pressurize the water in the cylinder through pressure gauge. The compressor is made to run till it reaches its maximum pressure and automatically stops. The pressure is released and check for any leakage in connecting points. The pressure is released and adjusted to the required pressure using the pressure valve. Once the pressure is set in the pressure valve then the pressure is released to the cylinder. The empty bucket weight is noted. Initially the pressure is set to 2bar and amount of water collected is noted. The readings are taken for different pressures 2bar to 6bar. There are nearly five to six trials are taken at each pressure. The readings are noted and tabulated for different pressures. The graph is plotted between pressure and mass flow rate.
VII. Conclusion
A spray nozzle based on opposed jet configuration has been developed suitable for use in portable water based fire extinguishers. The spray nozzle is studied for droplet size and distribution photographically. The spray is found have an SMD in the range of 0.3 mm to 0.4 mm which is considered appropriate for use in water extinguishment of Class A fires in literature. Spray SMD is also calculated from empirical correlations. Calculated values of SMD for the spray geometry also lie in the range of 0.3 to 0.4 mm. Study of expensive water mist fire extinguishers commercially available indicates use of similar water particle sizes. Studies are being carried out to examine the effect of spray penetration to ensure the effectiveness of employed application density. www.ijmer.com 796 | Page
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International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol.3, Issue.2, March-April. 2013 pp-793-797 ISSN: 2249-6645
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] G. Grant, J. Brenton, D. Drysdale Fire Supression by Water Sprays, progress in energy and combustion science 26 (2000) 79 -130 Zhigang Liu and Andrew K. Kim A Review of water mist fire suppression systems fundamental studies, Journal of fire protection engineering, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2000, pp. 32-50. KC Adiga and Heather D. Willauer, Ramagopal Ananth, and Frederick W. Williams Droplet Breakup Energies and Formation of Ultra-Fine Mist, Journal of fire protection engineering, Meenakshi Gupta, R. Rajora, Effect of Air or Nitrogen on Fire Suppression Performance of Twin Fluid Water Mist System in an Enclosed Chamber, Proceedings of fire science and technology, FIRST Nov 3 -4, 2011 KC Adiga, Robert F. Hatcher Jr, Ronald S. Sheinson, Frederick W. Willi ams, Scott ayers, A Computational and Experimental Study of Ultra Fine Water Mist as a Total Flooding Agent, fire safety journal 42 (2007) 150 -160. SN Sridhara and BN Raghunandan, Photographic Investigations of Jet Disintegration in Air-blast Sprays, Journal of applied fluid mechanics, vol 3, no. 2, pp 111-123, 2010 GV Roberts, An Experimental Investigation of Thermal Absorption by Water Spray, Fire and emergency planning directorate fir e research and development group. Kurt a. Estes and Issam Mudawar Correlation of Sauter Mean Diameter and Critical Heat Flux for Spray Cooling of Small Surfaces vol,38, 16,pp. 2985-2996, 1995. Viriato Semibo, Pedro Andrade and Maria da GraCa Carvalho, Spray Characterization: Numerical Prediction of Sauter Mean Diameter and Droplet Size Distribution fuel vol. 75, no. 15, pp, 1707-1714, 1996.
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